amandus

@ Sneaksie: Thank You for Your answer. This explains it. I usually attack(ed) the guns with a 3 men team from behind or flanks using grenades (2 men and one covering the action with SMG/MG) therefore there are usually no enemy soldiers alive near the gun(s) when I finally decide to send someone in to take over the gun. Or I took out the crew long time before with my indirect arty/air support. Like to preserve the life of my men particularly those who served already in several scenarios and have gained high gunnery- / scoutingskills. Did I already mention that I like this role-game feature in TOW and TOW2 where You can assaign the skills to the surviving soldiers as you like it ?

Thanks, it is fun to play - like the idea!

Noticed this one: I captured "tons" of 6 pdr. and 105 mm guns and some bofors and even an operable M 10 during the German campaign and neither the statistic (ingame Map screen and after battle report) shows them as captured nor in the after battle report = soldiers who have actually captured the gun(s) or vehicle(s) show this in their personal records. only once (1 out of app. 6 captured material appeared as captured once a time ) (Kasserinepass-scenario) However luckily the trophies appear at the end of the scenario together with its new crew and at the selection screen at the beginning of the next scenario. Downed aircraft does not seem to appear as such in the statistics either. a bug? Or how can I capture equipment and getting credited for? off topic: Great work! Absolutely the best wargame I've ever played so far!

If You have activated one of Your units and if You point with Your mouse over an enemy armored vehicle and remain in that position for a short while (or in PAUSE mode) a grafic appears and it shows You the armor thickness of that target (sand collored stripes) and the red lines indicate if and to which extend that armor can be penetrated by the currently loaded shell taking the the distance to the target into account. (Easy or medium gameplay difficulty activated however)

As we already know 24th of April is sneaking in. For many of us it may be the same sensation as X-mas in spring (24th April = 24th December ) – It is this certain urge to play TOW 2 already but still being unable to do so. We still have about 10 days left . Let’s start counting down 10…9…8…7… So, how to use these days for good? Any suggestions from the community? Like: hard workin’ till 24th (thus trying to forget the stress that you can’t play TOW2 already) and then taking a week off – or hugging Your wife / girlfriend / teddy bear - as much as you can during this time, so that You can dedicate the rest of the month playing TOW 2 undisturbed. Every suggestion is welcome !

You can use "captured" equipment of any type in the next mission however by simply editing the following mission in the “TOW Mission-Campaign Editor" and either - add the captured material to Your own force pool / reserves and edit "backpack" settings (You can fix type and amount of ammo that way) Do not forget to adjust the total number of acquisition points. (Using this method you can carry over surviving material to the next missions) or - add a third (neutral) army to the next mission - containing the captured equipment - without any crew. Take care of the "backpack"-settings and place it close to your staging area and crew it later at the beginning of the mission. Be aware of the fact that the crew needs to have a decent skill level (gunning and driving) to be able to operate the equipment. (Using this method You can NOT carry over surviving material to the next missions - the rules of the manual apply - it is just treated by the game as any ordinarily captured mat. during the mission) Captured equipment will retain the insignia of their "original" owner however e.g. French tanks used by the Germans will retain their original French insignias / German tanks used by the Soviets will retain their German insignias - unless you go into modding. You can create Your own campaigns that way. That is one feature of the game that I LOVE it is very adjustable - and You can be very creative designing your own missions and campaigns and changing the existing ones. Try out and have fun!

Thank You Moon Looking forward to watch them!

@ Tsche Unfortunately I do not have any maps you need. All the info I got from my book "stori dei mezzi corrazzati" (History of armored forces) by Benedetto Pafi (Director) published 1st edition 1976 by Fratelli Fabbri Editori, Milano It. (6 Volumes) (in Italian language) they cite the following sources: - Ufficio Documentazione Ministero della difesa (documentation bureau of the ministry of defence) - Ufficio Storico dell'Esercito ( office of the history of the armed forces) All I got is a small map from the book (I can not insert the map because I do not know how) But: I searched the internet for some further info about important data for your mod I found the following links: http://www.esercito.difesa.it/default.asp getting deeper into the site You will find info about historical equipment like: http://www.esercito.difesa.it/root/equipaggiamenti/mez_storici.asp http://www.esercito.difesa.it/root/equipaggiamenti/mez_sto_art.asp where You can find info about arty like the 47 mm AT gun and italian armored vehicles http://www.esercito.difesa.it/root/equipaggiamenti/mez_sto_art_ita_47_32.asp It contains info like that. Cannone da 47/32 mod. 35 - 1935 Pezzo d'artiglieria a tiro teso, armò le Compagnie controcarro delle unità di arma base ed i reggimenti di artiglieria paracadutisti. CARATTERISTICHE E PRESTAZIONI PRINCIPALI • Calibro: 47 mm (caliber) • Peso: 280 kg (weight) • Settore di tiro verticale: da -10° a +58° (Vertical angles) • Settore di tiro orizzontale: 60° (horicontal angels) • Celerità di tiro: 12/14 colpi min. (rounds fired per minute) • Gittata: 2000 mt. (max. range) I found a catalog page where they offer various publications concerning the theaters of war the italian army was involved http://www.esercito.difesa.it/root/Storico/prod_secondamond1.asp#6410 Maybe of particolar intrest might be: Le operazioni in Africa Settentrionale El Alamein - Vol.III (ristampa) (An english language version of this edition is also available the site sates.) L’opera ripercorre la situazione politico- militare, i piani d’azione delle forze contrapposte nonché tutte le problematiche che contraddistinsero gli esiti delle battaglie condotte in Africa Settentrionale a cui seguì un momento decisivo per l’iniziativa strategica alleata. Formato 24,5x17,5 - pp. 1036 - 35 foto in b/n e 100 schizzi or Immagini della 2^ Guerra Mondiale la Campagna in Tunisia (1942-1943) Il volume comprende oltre 300 immagini fotografiche inerenti alla Campagna combattuta in Tunisia dall’Esercito italiano fra il novembre 1942 ed il maggio 1943, suddivise in due tematiche di fondo, quelle operative e quelle logistico-ambientali. La raccolta del materiale iconografico è preceduta da una sintesi storica dei maggiori avvenimenti occorsi sul Fronte tunisino, considerato dalla dirigenza del tempo come l’avamposto della fortezza europa, la cui difesa rappresentava una chiave strategica per evitare la superiorità aerea e marittima degli Alleati. Formato 29 x 21 - pp 228 You can look up the homepage of the Italian secretary of defense. Their contact link is: http://www.difesa.it/Contatti/URP/ You might also apply to the Museo Storico della Fanteria (Museum of the history of infantry) , Roma, Piazza S. Croce in Gerusalemme, 9 , which includes the Musem of armored forces Concerning public relations You might apply also to Esercito italiano Ufficio Pubblica Informazione (Head office) Capo Ufficio Tel. 06 4735 7530 Fax 06 4735 8467 rassegna@esercito.difesa.it Sezione Coordinamento Tel. 06 4735 7398 Fax 06 4735 8727 casezcoord@smerag.esercito.difesa.it (Chief of Radio /TV section) Capo Sezione Radio/TV Tel. 06 4735 8530 casezradiotv@smerag.esercito.difesa.it (Press office) Sezione Stampa Tel. 06 4735 7540 Fax 06 4735 8507 rassegna@esercito.difesa.it Hope that helps Maybe there are some Italian friends out there who can help You with the italian language and maybe with the contacts. P.S. How can I post pictures like *.jpg ?

Did anyone observe the AI using smoke? I didn't in the demos - maybe in the finished game? (A little off topic: ) I noticed that bailed out tank crews get killed very easily because they remain for some vital moments in an upright position and trying to load their personal weapons until they dare to obey my order to go prone and crawl to the relative safe position behind the wreck. Maybe I should let the crew exit the tank at the start of the scenario to let them load their weapons and order them to hold fire – hope that increases their survivability to some extent. Hope this behavior can be tweaked. I personally stopped to try to use hand grenades, to get enemy infantry out of the buildings, as it mostly finishes as CharonJr posted already.

Extremely promising ! Thank You for Your dedication - please carry on - forza !!! Looking forward to an Italian campaign with the Centauro armored division attacking the town of Gafsa and carrying on to Kasserine. Great pictures! Still can't wait 24th April to come.

As the missions in the game I suppose to be set up by now, I think it is more the first than the second as long as You do not create Your own "infantry heavy missions" with little or almost no armor involved. Infantry occupying buildings now however forces us to the infantry support role unless You want to flat all the buildings. As warfare in the desert generally is based on fast armored mobility rather than slow infantry movement, the game reflects that rather well. For the first time I found the Sdkfz 250 and the M2/M3 halftracks useful in the game, carrying infantry safely where I need them. Not only to use them as mobile MG carriers. (I miss the mounted machine gun on the M2 however.) As long as both sides have significant armor available infantry plays a minor role tough.

Actually this issue had been announced by Sneaksie on 6th march already. Quote: Italian and British armored vehicles for TOW2 Currently Belorussia missions designer's wife makes models of various Italian and British units for a possible extension of TOW2 (mod or addon). http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/4395/ital.jpg Models are mostly finished, she is working on textures now. Last edited by Sneaksie : 03-06-2009 at 06:11 AM. Unfortunately however, comments went off topic and the thread had to be closed. I am personally looking forward to see this work to be continued and the scenario expanded even to autumn 1940 when Italian Carri Veloci met Mathildas and the Aussie’s used captured Italian M 11/39 tanks during their counter offensive with their distinctive kangaroo-emblem. Having already preordered the game and anticipating 24th April to come, to be able to start my download, I would like once again thank 1C and Battlefront for their dedication to their games and to us enjoying the games they provide. Having read the manual provided yesterday, I am looking forward to play the campaigns using ‘trophies’ like captured equipment, new infantry assets (e.g. Solothurn AT-rifle, AP-rounds for ordinary rifles, smoke grenades, AT-grenades a.s.o. and looking forward to still discover further in the game ) Many other proposals have been addressed satisfactory (sneak, ambush mode, occupying building, breastworks, etc.) The only thing I am still wondering is, why most troops by default do NOT have any ‘scouting-skills’ at all – except officers and snipers to a certain extend. And these are initially rather low. Even veteran soldiers do not have any initially, though they have high ‘accuracy’ skills. I do not understand why this skill I retain vital for the survival of my troops (even for tank crews – after bailing out) is almost neglected by the AI as it simulates the ability of the individual to hide. Even the sniper in the demo has a rather ‘lousy’ scouting skill which I claim to be the reason for his easy and early death during the mission(s). Reading about officers using binoculars from time to time to spot enemies was great. Did anyone already observe a spotting officer using his binoculars playing the demo? Interesting to know is the effect of wounds to different parts of the body reducing his ability to fight in different ways. Also good to know, that the use of a sniper rifle increases the accuracy by 15 % of any soldier using it.

I think it is almost identical except the special curser-icon for the camera movement in TOW (1) is missing. (the ball with the arrows) I found additional keys in the left-upper corner of the screen where you can fix the camera to an object that You selected before. You have 3 modes then. 1st mode (click) fixes the camera to a 3rd person view of the object to the selected object. 2nd mode (click) = 1st person view from the object (You can do it in TOW while in zoom mode by hitting the ‘enter’-key, I guess) 3rd mode (click) = releases the camera to free mode.

Merci for Your efforts. It helped a lot. It contains vital information for anybody who is not too familiar with TOW and it works perfectly well by simply replacing the files. Since my russian is not very well developed I now understand, why we can not cross the other passes, although I suspected some kind of minefield to be the reason. Now everybody not familiar with Russian, knows what to do next. When I was waiting for the download of the Russian demo to complete (which took me ages @~ 20kB/s) I spent some time at the Russian site of AFRICA 1943 (http://africa1943.games.1c.ru/) trying to find further info about the game. I found a link on that site might interest You, friends out there, also not very familiar with Russian and more familiar with French. It leads to a French site (http://forum.jeux-strategie.com/index.php?showtopic=61271) with the explanation of the menue in French and an after action report of the german Kasserine - mission filled with lots of nice screenshots. I hope that info is useful.

On the screenshots recently published by battlefront there are watchtowers as well as in TOW (1). In TOW you can not man the towers as you can not enter buildings in general. On the pictures those towers are too far away to get a glimpse if they were manned or not. I would like to place some people there - if only for reconaisance. Does the water-container shown in the pic spread any water if hit? Any clues from the developers?

The vehicle list on the TOW2-page does not really show major differences or expansions to the vehicles already implemented in TOW (1). Have there been any changes / updates since 4th August 2008? Ok, there are some “new” variants of Pzkw III + IV, the famous 8.8 cm FLAK, the lIG 7.5 cm IG-gun and a couple of new aircraft on the German side and the earlier version of the Stuart-Tank , the GMC M3 (with 75 mm AT-gun) the 2-pdr AT-gun and the Bofors AA-gun and also a couple of new planes on the allied side so far. Although it has been stated that Italian infanty is implemented in the new game I would appreciate some basic important Italian armored vehicles like the Autoblindo AB-41/42 (armored car), Semovente M 41/42 da 75/18 (self propelled gun) , the camionetta “sahariana” (multi-purpose reconnaissance vehicle) and the carri armati M 14/41 and/or M 15/42 (tanks) + some kind of Autocannone with some sort of AT/AA armament (Truck mounted guns). Concerning artillery, the standard Italian 47/32 AT-gun, Mitragliatrice Breda 20 mm AA/AT-gun and/or Cannone 75/46 AA-gun and some other sort of Italian 7.5 cm, 10 cm or 10.5 cm artillery would be fine. Of course the famous Macchi-200 or Fiat fighter aircraft and the SM-79 bomber aircraft would be nice. Are there any new allied units besides those already mentioned? Like the M 7 Priest self-propelled gun, the Churchill III Tank, M3 Grant / Lee variants, Bishop SP-gun , MK-IV /V Valentine and the Humber Mk II armored car, truck mounted 2- or 6-pdr AT-guns, American 37/55 M3A1 AT-guns? Any other German armoury? E.g. ”Marder” 7.5/7.62 cm SP-guns, Sd. Kfz. 233 (with 7.5 cm gun), single barreled AA-gun carriers, Sd. Kfz. 251/10 (half-truck with 3.7 cm AT-gun) , Sd. Kfz. 251/2 (with 81 mm mortar) and Sd. Kfz 251/9 (with 7,5 cm infantry gun), captured Valentine-tanks, captured APC M3s, 20 mm FLAK 38 AA-guns (not mounted), 5 cm, 6 cm, 3” and / or 81 mm mortar teams on map, AA-machineguns on vehicles/on the ground, Haftholladungen (magnetic HEAT-mines), HEAT-rounds for 3,7 AT-Gun PAK 35/36 (spigot), off-/on-board-arty like Nebelwerfer (rocket-propelled arty)? Can heavy machine guns be moved by its crew now and/or being placed on the roof/ 2nd floor of a building? Can heavy machine guns be placed in trenches now? (they have been far too vulnerable in TOW, I didn’t like to use them much in TOW as crews got killed to easily, except those in fortifications, and of course i coldn't move them!) Writing about fortifications, is there any new type of bunker in the game (e.g. AT-positions such as R-35 / H-35 turrets, Italian M 14 Tanks covered by rocks and turned into “mini-forts” , so-called “Ringstände “ or “Tobruk-Stände” (= bunkers entirely dug in with only a l-MG 34/42 placed in an open hatch and used in terrestrial- as well as in AA-rule ) )? Any 1-2 men foxholes (as in CM)? Do other vehicles, except those dedicated to AA-defense, now have AA-capacity e.g. browning 0.5 “, Bren or MG 34/42 machineguns mounted on APC M3s, APC Sd.Kfz. 250/251, Bren-carrier , jeeps, trucks, tanks, SPGs or the KwK-38 mounted on Sd.Kfz 222? Thank You for your answer! For me TOW is the best RTS-tactical game ever made so far – spasiva 1C and thank you battlefront for Your efforts!